


Do You Know What Love Is?

by ThisRoseHasAnotherName



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anxious Peter Parker, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hydra, I should be doing homework, Kid Peter Parker, Muffins, One mild swear word, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker has PTSD, Precious Peter Parker, Protect At All Costs, Protective Bucky Barnes, Scars, The Avengers Are Good Bros, There isn't really graphic violence, but there is blood, gunshot wound, oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22617895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisRoseHasAnotherName/pseuds/ThisRoseHasAnotherName
Summary: The story of Bucky and Peter surviving Hydra - together.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff & Peter Parker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 146





	Do You Know What Love Is?

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know what this is, but I hope you like it?

"What's your name?"  
"Petah," the child lisps. "Wha's your name?"  
The Asset tilts his head. "I don't remember."  
"Oh," the young one says. "Do you wan' one?"  
The Asset nods, eyeing the small person that is sharing his cell. He wonders if he will cry again, soon.  
"You look like a teddy bear," he says with a strange smile. The Asset wonders if this is what innocence looks like. "I'll call you Teddy."

__________

Peter didn’t come back on his own. Instead, he was tossed into the room by a guard who refused to look at the Asset. As soon as the door was closed, the Asset crept forward to see if the small boy was breathing, though he didn’t know why they would bring him back if he was dead. Probably to torture him.  
“Peter?”  
“Hur’s,” the child whispered. “They did it again. I wan’ Mommy.”  
The Asset didn’t know why, but he reached a hand out and smoothed the curly brown hair back from the child’s head. He was covered in sweat, and his lip looked bitten through.  
He didn’t know what else to do, so he just kept petting the young one’s head. 

__________

“You okay?” Peter asked from his ceiling corner.  
“Fine,” Teddy replied.  
It obviously wasn’t true, but Peter wasn’t going to push. He knew what the vein like scars running away from the man’s temples meant. He remembered when they wiped him the first time and Teddy had come back not knowing who he was. It was scary.  
“Is there anything I need to patch up?”  
Teddy silently held out his left arm, the flesh one, where a deep gash was spraying blood.  
Peter cautiously made his way down from the ceiling, nervous to come close to anyone, even Teddy. Peter made quick work of creating a bandage made out of his webbing and stuck it to the man’s skin.  
Teddy nodded in thanks, and Peter scurried back to his corner. It was no more strain for him to perch on the ceiling than it was for him to sit on the ground. Sometimes, when Teddy had been gone for a few days, he forgot which was up. 

_______

“Teddy?”  
“Yes, Peter?”  
“Do you know what love is?”  
Teddy took a minute to reply.  
“Yes.”  
“I love you.”  
“I love you, too, punk.”

________

When Peter came back still bleeding from a gunshot wound, Teddy couldn’t keep his growl to himself.  
“It’s okay, Teddy,” Peter tried to comfort. “It’s barely even bleeding, anymore.”  
Teddy didn’t believe him when he kept his hand over the wound.  
“You’re healing too slow. You will eat my dinner tonight,” Teddy said decisively.  
He saw that Peter wanted to protest, but he apparently didn’t have the energy to do anything but breathe and hold his stomach closed.  
Teddy made his way over to Peter, cautious of his skittish cellmate. Reaching out to him was always a problem, but when he settled his hand on Peter’s shaved head, Peter finally allowed his eyes to close.

_______

Teddy didn’t know when he started referring to himself as Teddy instead of the Asset. That memory had been wiped, but he knew Teddy must be his name because every time he was reset, Peter said, “Hi, my name is Peter. Your name is Teddy. Do you know what love is?”  
And if Teddy’s answer was yes, Peter knew it would be okay, at least until the next round when he asked the same question again.

________

There had been rumors going around, about a group of supers attacking the base. Peter and Teddy had thought this to be entirely false until the very walls around them seemed to shake with the force of something hitting the building.  
They hoped that they would either be set free, or buried under the rubble.

______

“Peter, go to your corner,” Teddy said as they heard steps approaching.  
Peter hurried up the wall and crouched in a ‘ready’ position. Teddy stood in the middle of the room, ready to fight whoever was coming, guard or no. This was the only chance they would ever get to escape, and they would take it.  
When a blond man opened the door, covering his abdomen with his shield, he seemed shocked at what he saw.  
“Bucky?!”

______

“Who the hell is Bucky?”

_______

Peter held onto Teddy’s shirt as they walked through the halls for the last time, toward freedom. He was twelve now, and he couldn’t remember what outside looked like besides a blurry picture of a blue sky.

______

Teddy listened to Peter’s breathing go haywire at the sight of the sad green and yellow field next to the concrete building, the trees, the sky, everything.  
“Peter, breathe.”  
The redheaded woman tried to reach out to Peter, but Teddy’s growl stopped her. Teddy himself reached out and placed his hand on Peter’s head, one of the only safe places to touch. The boy’s responding flinch didn’t shock him, and he continued his petting motion, glaring at all the others, until Peter’s breathing was as settled as it would get.  
“Teddy!” Peter gasped. “A bird!”

______

“Teddy!” Peter called.  
Teddy couldn’t stop the instinct to run into whatever room Peter was in. The sight of Peter smiling stopped him short. It was a rare sight.  
“Look at this! Wanda says it’s a muffin. Try one!”

_______

It turned out that Teddy really loved muffins.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated!


End file.
